Leinster Cricket, South Dublin County Council and the Lord’s Taverners encourage participation in sport for young people with disabilities

Senior women’s international Amy Kenealy will commence in her new role as community development officer for the South Dublin County area on December 3rd. This is a great boost for the game in Leinster that now sees four cricket development posts in the province. Her role will be specifically geared towards running programmes for those with disabilities, the running of grass roots programmes designed to further increase participation while also working to develop emerging girl’s talent by assisting with the Leinster youth coaching programme. This initiative  also represents the outcome of an imaginative collaboration between Leinster Cricket and The Lord’s Taverners Ireland who have agreed to make a contribution of almost half of the cost of the project.

Amy’s appointment has come about following a very successful nine-month internship that was established through the government driven Jobbridge initiative.

The post has developed following many discussions between Leinster cricket and South Dublin Co Co (Sports office). Sports officer at South Dublin County Council Paula Swayne is delighted with the appointment of the new position commenting:

‘Amy’s work under the Jobbridge programme highlighted the gap in cricket development for our residents with a disability. Following on from the Paralympics 2012 and the “Awareness” and the “Ability” that it highlighted to everyone watching – inspired us as a council to further promote Disability in Sport. The UK have disability sport very high on their agenda and from them we learnt how the great game of cricket can be easily adapted for people with a disability, incorporating all the sporting characteristics of a main stream game. It’s very exciting times ahead for Amy, as the initial introduction of this game was very well received among the clients and users of disability groups and associations throughout the county’.

Mr Philip Furlong, Chairman of Lord’s Taverners Ireland, said that the Taverners were delighted to be associated with this innovative collaboration involving South Dublin County Council, Leinster Cricket and The Lord’s Taverners and look forward to its successful roll-out.   The project is a good fit with the core objective of the Taverners of giving disabled young people an opportunity to participate in competitive sport.